Fundraisers in the Workplace
April 28th, 2009
Nowadays many stores are participating in raising money for various charities and organizations; whether or not this due to generosity or a facade depends on the store. Regardless, if you head to checkout in a store, there is a good chance you’ll be asked for a donation to benefit cause X, Y or Z. The store I work for hosts various fundraisers year round, and since I’m now working 30+ hours a week, you can bet your ass I’ve asked the washed out “would you like to donate a dollar to…?” question so many times I think about it in my sleep. Yeah, it’s that bad.
So, first of all, a couple of observations I’ve made while asking for donations:
- The reaction to the question of donating is always interesting. Some customers are very happy to donate two or three dollars at a time and others only need me to get to the word “donate” before they interrupt me to ask what their total is. The responses I receive the most are “not today” and “I already have,” although I’ve also received the rare “the government already takes away enough of my money, and now you want some too?” statement.
- When I ask, I make sure I ask everybody. I don’t skip someone because they’re paying with food stamps; actually, you’d be surprised how many of them would be happy to donate to so and so organization even when they themselves are receiving a little help from the government. And for those customers that seem 100% sure to turn me down just from the look of them… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been secretly surprised by the generosity of the customers. Even the most intimidating looking person is willing to help out others.
It’s great that even in economic hardship, there are people who are willing to help out a cause. However, it all depends on the cashier, too. Some cashiers don’t care enough, are lazy, or just don’t remember to ask when they are ringing up orders. People are generous enough to donate, but how are they going to know that a donation drive is happening if the cashier doesn’t ask?
If you have never worked as a cashier at a store that does donation drives, then you may not know that companies try to provide incentive to get them out there and asking so that an optimal amount of money can be raised. Popping the question isn’t exactly an altruistic thing; the vast majority of us have an ulterior motive because of it and the donation drive becomes a competition. Look at mine. The person who gets the most donations per hour (number of donations divided by hours worked during the drive) wins an iPod and a $25 gift card for iTunes. The store also offers other prizes and posts the list of prizes on a poster by the clock so everyone is aware.
And while it’s great that the store is trying to generate an interest in the drive, I don’t think this is the right way to do it. No, I don’t have a better suggestion, yes, I know that the best way to get someone to do something for others is to offer a personal incentive for them. But it’s not right. This is for a charity and it should not be made into a competition for some material possessions. Just the other day, mom went into K-Mart, and you know what the cashier said to her? “Please donate, these two other girls are beating me!!” Yeah, that’ll get me to part with my money. I’m more likely to donate out of the goodness of my heart, or even the pressure of feeling guilty if I don’t, than I am because of a petty competition behind the scenes. It belittles the purpose of the drive and it discourages me from even thinking of donating there again, even if I believe in the cause.
Rewarding people for raking in donations is all well and good, but why not make the prizes a secret thing that you don’t even know about until you’ve done enough to earn them? This way, the right people are rewarded and the spirit of the charity is kept intact. The problem is, just how many people would participate with this method? Unfortunately, I don’t think there would be many.
I know it’s not especially right of me to be speaking out against this; hell, to be completely honest, I just received prizes the other day for my own drive. Not to sound holier than thou, but, despite what my coworkers think, I don’t especially care about the prizes. I ask because it comes with my job, it’s nice to help out, and it’s uplifting to see that there are generous strangers out there, breaking all preconceived notions and molds they were originally thought to fit into. There is so much potential in everyone, coworkers and customers alike, to make the donation drives successful, and that is exactly why it’s so horrible to see the integrity of the charity destroyed before it even touches the customer.
Honesty
February 14th, 2009
I think it’s really interesting how being honest can make everything more complicated than it needs to be. I probably shouldn’t be broadcasting my stupidity, but I ran into a problem at work on Wednesday. We have four U-scans at our supermarket, and at the front is a desk where one employee stands and makes sure customers are actually ringing up their stuff and oversees any problems they might run into along the way. Now, I’m not too experienced with heading U-scan. I can ring up my own stuff fine, but for the most part, when it comes to helping customers with theirs, I’m not very good at it. Quite honestly, I was not trained as well as I would have liked to have been before they stuck me there.
So, on Wednesday, I had to watch U-scan for about an hour. During this hour, I perform a simple transaction for cigarettes - ironically, someone I graduated with asked for them (making this ten times worse). I ID the person, scan the product, she pays, and we’re both off on our merry way. Or so I think, until I’m sitting in the truck on the way home and think it’s kind of odd that eight packs of cigarettes only rang up for $7.22. And then I realized… that I only scanned one pack.
At first it was like a playful joke with myself, and so I brushed it off and stared at the sunset. Except that after that awful realization, I couldn’t get it out of my fucking head. Had I really done that? Really? Then the dreaded question: Should I say something?
Anyone that I’ve talked to on AIM during the time in between Wednesday and today are well aware that I’ve been scattering my brains over this situation. In my heart, I knew I had to tell someone. My brain, on the other hand, was screaming NAY, DAMMIT, NAY!!! A breakdown as to why:
- The Pros of Telling: Wouldn’t be hiding anything, wouldn’t feel as awful, and it wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass if they found out for themselves.
- The Cons of Telling: I could be fired!
While there are more pros, the single con is clinching. No one wants to lose their job, especially not now, and I also really like it there and have made some of what I would call friends. As a result of my dilemma, I sought help and advice from my friends and family; my friends said I should say something, and my family said I shouldn’t. With encouragement from Kae and Larissa, I planned on telling a superior about what happened, even though I constantly brought it up, almost as if I wanted them to tell me I shouldn’t. I felt like it had to be done, but I didn’t want to do it. Receiving a call to come in two hours early from the same person I planned to confront didn’t make it any easier.
The actual scene at work was almost nothing, though. I walked in, I clocked in, and then I went straight to my supervisor and asked if I could speak to her in private. I told her what happened, apologized, and offered to cover the loss with my paycheck, and all she said was to be careful. I lost the company $50 worth of cigarettes… and all she told me was to be careful. I feel relieved that I’m not in trouble (as far as I know), and that I told someone, but at the same time it just seems like I would have received some sort of slap on the wrist, an audit, something. Maybe I’m just a masochist?
With the result in mind, I feel kind of silly fretting over whether to be honest or not. In fact, it’s kind of disgusting, how much I had to consider it before deciding to be up front. To be honest. Is it natural to have this great inner conflict? Is this a personal thing, or a result of the state of the world? A combination? What if I hadn’t said anything? Would I have done the same thing if there had been absolutely no way to trace it back to me? If there was an alternate universe where I didn’t say a word, what would I be feeling right now?
And most importantly, what would you have done?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
January 6th, 2009
It would appear that my new job has a rather large effect on my body after I’m done with work. I suppose this was expected, considering when I was unemployed I barely moved much and now I’m lifting tons of groceries a day, but still. My back is still sore from working two days ago, and that’s just weird.
When I get home I throw off my work clothes, get into my comfortable Amber clothes and curl up in the corner in silence, not wanting to move, think or speak for at least two hours. When my parents see this, they think I’ve had a bad day, but more often than not it’s just me being entirely consumed by drowsiness after six hours of talking to people I don’t know. I suppose the smile I wear reminiscent to the Cheshire cat’s when greeting customers also plays a small part in this. If anything, the only time I’m aware of my annoyance is when I’m sitting in the truck on the way home, and all I want to do is sit in silence and stare at whatever is being pretty at the moment, and yet dad keeps talking and talking and talking, and in a circle too, more often than not.
One of the things I’ve noticed is that I feel ten times more drained when I have had a bad experience with a customer. I’ve had an angry old lady call me asinine, I’ve had an old man tell me I shouldn’t work where I do, one man told the next customer “good luck” in line, and I get a lot of silent “Why did I choose your lane, why can’t you go faster, I hate you very much” stares. Though, that’s not to say I haven’t had a lot of nice people too. I mean, on my first day, a man tipped his hat to me and thanked me very much because I did an awesome job bagging his groceries. A lot of people have told me that even though I am obviously new (I practically have a sign on my forehead) I am doing a good job. Then again, they might also be cursing me miles away. 
Another thing I’ve witnessed is the rate at which smiles catch on. I always greet the customer with a “HI!!!!!” so jubilant that even the most intimidating looking ones smile back and say “Hi!” and so on, but then they go back to frowning afterward when I start putting their stuff away, so… heheh.
My coworkers are very kind to me too. Even when I do something incredibly (why not use the old lady’s word here?) asinine they fix it for me and show me how to do it properly, after which I usually never do it again. A lot of them give me tips on the spur of the moment too, which is very helpful. The only thing I’m really still having trouble with is categorizing where food should go in bags and doing it in a fast manner. Larry is constantly asked for advice on this matter. XD
So, yes: I am generally doing well at work, it’s just that small amount of customers that are draining my lifespan away. If you have any tips for this supermarket cashier, please do feel free to give them because I am in desperate need of any help I can get. I wish there was an online handbook of PLU codes so I could memorize them, though… I already memorized bananas, broccoli crowns, tomatoes on the vine, green bell peppers, cucumbers and green beans. I’ve almost got bagels and donuts down, but not quite. Damn items priced by weight and quantity!
